When Are White People Going to Get Over It

I thought this was so powerful that I am posting it here in its entirety.
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When Are White People Going to Get Over It by Andrew M. Manis


For much of the last forty years, ever since America “fixed” its race problem in the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, we white people have been impatient with African Americans who continued to blame race for their difficulties. Often we have heard whites ask, “When are African Americans finally going to get over it?

Now I want to ask: “When are we White Americans going to get over our ridiculous obsession with skin color?

Recent reports that “Election Spurs Hundreds’ of Race Threats, Crimes” should frighten and infuriate every one of us.

Having grown up in “Bombingham,” Alabama in the 1960s, I remember overhearing an avalanche of comments about what many white classmates and their parents wanted to do to John and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Eventually, as you may recall, in all three cases, someone decided to do more than “talk the talk.”

Since our recent presidential election, to our eternal shame we are once again hearing the same reprehensible talk I remember from my boyhood.

We white people have controlled political life in the disunited colonies and United States for some 400 years on this continent. Conservative whites have been in power 28 of the last 40 years. Even during the eight Clinton years, conservatives in Congress blocked most of his agenda and pulled him to the right. Yet never in that period did I read any headlines suggesting that anyone was calling for the assassinations of presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, or either of the Bushes. Criticize them, yes. Call for their impeachment, perhaps. But there were no bounties on their heads. And even when someone did try to kill Ronald Reagan, the perpetrator was non-political mental case who wanted merely to impress Jody Foster

But elect a liberal who happens to be Black and we’re back in the sixties again. At this point in our history, we should be proud that we’ve proven what conservatives are always saying — that in America anything is possible, EVEN electing a black man as president. But instead we now hear that school children from Maine to California are talking about wanting to “assassinate Obama.”

Fighting the urge to throw up, I can only ask, “How long?” How long before we white people realize we can’t make our nation, much less the whole world, look like us? How long until we white people can - once and for all - get over this hell-conceived preoccupation with skin color? How long until we white people get over the demonic conviction that white skin makes us superior? How long before we white people get over our bitter resentments about being demoted to the status of equality with non-whites?

How long before we get over our expectations that we should be at the head of the line merely because of our white skin? How long until we white people end our silence and call out our peers when they share the latest racist jokes in the privacy of our white-only conversations?

I believe in free speech, but how long until we white people start making racist loudmouths as socially uncomfortable as we do flag burners? How long until we white people will stop insisting that blacks exercise personal responsibility, build strong families, educate themselves enough to edit the Harvard Law Review, and work hard enough to become President of the United States, only to threaten to assassinate them when they do?

How long before we starting “living out the true meaning” of our creeds, both civil and religious, that all men and women are created equal and that “red and yellow, black and white” all are precious in God’s sight?

Until this past November 4, I didn’t believe this country would ever elect an African American to the presidency. I still don’t believe I’ll live long enough to see us white people get over our racism problem. But here’s my three-point plan: First, everyday that Barack Obama lives in the White House that Black Slaves Built, I’m going to pray that God (and the Secret Service) will protect him and his family from us white people.

Second, I’m going to report to the FBI any white person I overhear saying, in seriousness or in jest, anything of a threatening nature about President Obama. Third, I’m going to pray to live long enough to see America surprise the world once again, when white people can “in spirit and in truth” sing of our damnable color prejudice, “We HAVE overcome.”

It takes a Village to protect our President!!!

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Andrew M. Manis is associate professor of history at Macon State College in Georgia and wrote this essay. It first appeared in the Macon Telegraph.

Anybody but a black woman!

Like many single women, I've signed up on and read many profiles on the various Internet dating sites. Each of these sites has a section where the member can indicate the ethnicity of the person they're seeking. Nine times out of ten, regardless of the ethnicity of the male member, every ethnicity is selected but a black woman. I've heard all the imbecilic reasons why some men don't date black women: they're gold-diggers; they're too aggressive; they want to wear the pants; they bring too much drama/baggage; they're too demanding; and my personal favorite – black women smell different (actually read that in a blog about interracial dating).

Recently, I read a blog that asked the question: Do black men hate black women? (http://auntjemimasrevenge.blogspot.com/2009/02/do-black-men-hate-black-women-im-being.html) The question was prompted by the apparent support of Chris Brown in the alleged beating of Rihanna. While I believe that the support of Chris Brown by many has more to do with the acceptance of, the tolerance of, domestic violence, I do believe that the black woman gets little respect by many. We've talked endlessly about how supportive the black woman has been of black men throughout our history in the United States. During slavery, we watched as our black men were whipped, sold off and even murdered and still – black women stood by their men and supported their families. Post-slavery, when black men were either denied employment or only able to secure menial employment, we still stood by our men. Fast forward to 2009, and it seems, to many, that black women are the least desirable women on the planet.

Don't get me wrong, black women have some ownership in the problem. After watching numerous court shows and other shows, like Maury, I see that many black women have so little self-respect or are so desperate to have a man, any man, that they put up with anything and often try to buy a man to keep him. Then, there are also the women who really do bring a lot of drama to a relationship. The young son of a friend stated, in front of his white girlfriend, that the brothers date the white girls because they know they don't have to bring their A game. There's a certain dichotomy in the two views. In the latter view, brothers know that they're not bringing what they should to the table. In the former view, black women are too demanding and require too much.

I read an article a few years ago that stated that black women should seek Asian men. The view was that Asian men and black women were the two most undesirable groups on the planet. The comments to the article were quite interesting. One Asian man stated that Asian-American had, for the most part, adopted a white culture standard of beauty and in that standard, black women were not seen as either feminine or attractive. He further stated that black women were too aggressive and as a result an anathema to Asian culture. Well, there's another group of men who don't want black women!

Many black women are reluctant to date outside their race. I've heard many black women state, there's nothing like the love of a good, black man." Also, since it is said that most women seek their father in the mate they choose, it is probably only natural that most black women seek a black man. So, do women who think this way remain single or mateless?

Thus, the stain of slavery on the United States continues to emit repercussions. The black woman had no choice during slavery and its aftermath BUT to become strong, to become the head of the family, to become the major breadwinner of the family. Despite our men, and often our children, being sold away – or worse – we survived and continued on. Yet, we are despised, dismissed and derided by many because of our steadfastness. Other ethnicities, upon coming to this country, adopt the white standard of beauty, of real womanhood, that finds the black woman less than desirable. Many black men have also adopted this standard, choosing to date and marry, ANYBODY BUT A BLACK WOMAN.